The Hunger Games (2012)

The Hunger Games Synopsis

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Could it work? Sure. Universal Studios has an extremely popular Harry Potter theme park in Orlando. There have been plans for a Fast & Furious theme park. So yeah, theme parks based on very popular movies are the new fad.

A new video in promotion of the final installment of the Hunger Games pays tribute to the films that came before it, while gloriously depicting how the lonely Mockingjay spread its wings into a glowing phoenix.

Josh Hutcherson surely has very little to complain about where the Hunger Games movies are concerned. After all, he has a lead role in the series, and the movies have been both huge financial successes, and also critical hits. Being even amazing things have their small problem, and for Hutcherson's experience as Peeta, the worst part of all of it was dying his hair blond.

Are you the world's biggest fan of The Hunger Games franchise and can't stand it when people criticize the films in the series? Well, you may want to turn away now, as the most recent title, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 is about to be seriously hated on in this video

While a movie’s box office numbers are a good sign of its popularity or the level of anticipation it was able to muster, one could argue that Blu-ray sales are an indicator of just how beloved that title is.

Jennifer Lawrence was cast as Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games franchise back in 2011, and she quickly rose to international stardom. In retrospect, however, the 24-year-old actress was actually terrified of signing on to something as huge as the young adult franchise.

To help fight against this devastating virus, and to give aid to the countries hit hardest by it, Jennifer Lawrence and several of her Hunger Games cast members, like Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, starred in a PSA for the Ebola Survival Fund.

Jena Malone got off to a relatively fast start in Hollywood. Her breakout role in Saved! helped define her career path, but she continued to challenger herself (and her image) in movies like Pride & Prejudice and Sucker Punch.

Director Francis Lawrence had a major task ahead of him, bringing the first half of a relatively short book to life in a two-hour movie. Following are the 15 biggest changes I noticed in my screening of Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay –Part 1.

Perhaps it's partially due to the horror work he has done during his career, but Donald Sutherland has always had an intimidating presence about him. While he’s clearly an amicable and good-natured soul, you can tell that if he really wanted something he would be able to get.

The effects of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s loss probably won’t be felt until next year, when The Hunger Games franchise finally wraps with Mockingjay: Part 2. That means we will have similar discussions about the work he did on the franchise, and our chance to say goodbye to this acting titan, a year from now.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 is already setting box-office records three weeks ahead of its release. Fandango has confirmed that it has broken first day advance ticket sale records for 2014, even though it is still just under a month away.

The summer season may be behind us, but that doesn't mean that Hollywood is done pumping out huge blockbusters in 2014. We are now less than a month away from the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, and Lionsgate has sent out a rather epic new trailer to get you prepared.

He taught us how to channel out love of dancing Groot into adorable cupcakes, now JK Denim is giving us a welcomed tutorial on how to satisfy our cravings for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 with a delectable fan art pie!

How do you turn The Hunger Games: Mockingjay into a romantic comedy? Jimmy Kimmel answers that question with the video ahead, which takes the trailer for the highly anticipated Hunger Games: Mockingjay and re-markets it as Cupid's Arrow....

The new Hunger Games: Mockingjay Trailer - Part 1 is here and did anyone else just get chills? There's really nothing like the sight of people holding their fingers up while looking at Katniss with support, determination and readiness. The anticipation for the first part of the two-part adaptation Mockingjay is already on the rise as November approaches.

Movie memorabilia is a big business for online collectors, but just what items have fetched the most money online? The answers are going to be a bit surprising in some cases, but the top item shouldn't surprise anyone.

After making its debut during Comic-Con in San Diego last week, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 trailer has finally arrived online! As you can see in the video, it looks like Katniss has been called to fight again.

The movie comes out this November. You, however, can start seeing this trailer this weekend. Owners of select Galaxy devices will have the opportunity to download the all-new Hunger Games Movie Pack App, via Google Play for access to exclusive content from The Hunger Games franchise.

Lionsgate carved out a little corner of the Convention Center floor for a sizeable Hunger Games exhibit, handing out posters to excited fans and allowing crowd members to post with Peacekeepers. Traitors!

21st Century Fox is developing a mentorship program for female filmmakers, in hopes of bolstering the presence of women in film. Called the Fox Global Directors Initiative, this program will accept 20 participants who will be welcomed into a five-week directors lab.

Flashing it can be extremely dangerous, but there’s also a hopefulness to it. In short, it’s like a promise for a better tomorrow, and in Thailand, that’s apparently what protesters need right now. They’ve reportedly taken to flashing the three-fingered salute in the streets, and the action has become so common, the junta is now taking action.

It’s finally here! The most distinguished, important and prestigious award show of the entire year has finally arrived! It’s the MTV Movie Awards, and they boast enough clout to break careers and ruin lives.

With a fabulous and flashy string of dazzling outfits, Johnny Weir has proved a breakout star of the 2014 Winter Olympics without even being in competition. The former Olympian has turned commentator for NBC at the Sochi games, and the openly gay figure skater hasn't toned down his signature style one bit.

Natalie Dormer has never been a woman who has trouble going for it. She’s done nudity, corsets and all sorts of general weirdness; so, it probably shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that she’s willing to cut her hair for a role. In this case, she was apparently willing to shave her head, or at least half of it for both parts of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.

Russell was making a joke. A bad one, when you consider – especially – that he’s running the current Oscar marathon alongside a harrowing depiction of actual slavery in Steve McQueen’s masterful 12 Years a Slave.

Cookie plays Cookiness Evereat, and he and his friends must face the challenges of the Hungry Games, which include pestering monkeys, food-centric puzzles, and lessons in finding patterns. The tributes have to stop and think. And it's tricky. Or as Cookie puts in his signature clunky vernacular, "Boy, being strong heroine of an entire franchise hard work!"

The cat may have been hired for its excellent hissing abilities, but it looked nothing like the Buttercup described in the book, as a "hideous-looking cat" with a coat either the color of rotting squash or a buttercup flower, depending on who you asked. Katniss's younger sister Prim loves Buttercup, and Katniss can't stand him; believe it or not the cat plays a pretty significant role in the third book

This week we're processing both the weekend performance of Thor: The Dark World and Marvel Studio's giant deal with Netflix to talk about the future of Marvel comics, and how in the coming years pretty much everything Disney makes will all be linked together.

There are makeup and nail polish lines and Subway sandwich tie-ins and an entire fake magazine dedicated to its fancy clothes. So of course The Hunger Games was going to wind up with a theme park, no matter how cringingly out-of-step with the book's messages that might actually be

Lionsgate and Summit knew that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire would be a huge hit-- that's why they shelled out more than twice the budget of the original film for the upcoming sequel. But will it have a hard time being as big as its predecessor?. Deadline got their hands on the earliest tracking numbers for Katniss's next adventure, and if all goes well, Catching Fire would easily break the record for the biggest-ever November opening

Tomorrow night, cities and small towns across America will be overrun by masked children in search of candy, and cocktail-seeking adults dressed as sexy (insert any noun in the English language here). But we've got a peek into what you're likely to see out and about tomorrow...

Where did all that money go? Well, like I said, a lot of it you can see on the screen-- director Francis Lawrence was able to shoot in both Georgia and Hawaii, while Hunger Games director Gary Ross was limited to just North Carolina, and he added five days to the production schedule. Another $10 million went to boosting the effects budget, which is why Katniss and Peeta's flaming Capitol outfits look so much better this time

It's taken until less than a month before the film opens, but we're finally getting a look at the inside of the arena for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and that one reveal has suddenly made the sequel look like the must-see it ought to be

The trailer actually give away what I assume is the entire movie. Then again, it’s basically just the original Hunger Games with, but with bad jokes. Then, at the end of the clip, Friedberg and Seltzer cram in more jokes to capitalize on such pop-culture touchstones as Tim Tebow, The Lord of the Rings, Angry Birds, Avatar and, of course, The Avengers.

If you haven't read The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, these shots from the set of the movie version probably don't make much sense to you-- how does an old mill fit into this futuristic world in which kids fight each other in an arena? Fans of the book aren't exactly going to look at that building and immediately know where it fits in, but it's not hard to guess that, at some point in the battle for the future of Panem, Katniss Everdeen and other freedom fighters wind up paying a visit to this dilapidated spot

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire doesn't open in theaters until November 22, but based on what we're seeing today, it might be the only movie anybody is talking about between now and then. The excitement is all over the place

How Rabe’s character will fit into the world of Panem will be detailed below, which will offer spoilers for Catching Fire and Mockingjay. So, if you haven’t read the books and don’t want anything spoiled, considered yourself warned...

In The Hunger Games and soon in Catching Fire, Donald Sutherland has created an indelible portrait of evil power as President Snow, the leader of a government so cruel that it keeps its people in check by sending children to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. But it's time for another person to take on a position of power and challenge Snow, so naturally that person is… Julianne Moore?

You may not recognize Ross unless you're a fan of the new 90210, on which he played Charlie Selby for nine episodes, or caught him as Kevin in Jeff Who Lives At Home, the kid whom Jason Segel's nutty character befriends thanks to what he believes is a sign from the universe. He's also Diana Ross's son, if you're into that kind of thing

Lionsgate, according to a release, revealed that Australian actress Stef Dawson has been selected to play Cresta in the two-part Mockingjay adaptation, which will be directed by Francis Lawrence. Cresta is the District 4 victor from the 70th Hunger Games.

Catching Fire wowed the crowds in Comic-Con's Hall H today, but one of the big highlights-- the brand-new trailer-- is available for us to watch online right now, via Yahoo!. A lot of the footage is familiar from earlier glimpses at the film, and Lionsgate is still sticking with their strategy of not marketing any scenes of fighting in the arena

With an highly anticipated Hall H panel planned for Saturday afternoon in San Diego Comic-Con, Lionsgate continues beating the drum for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Today, a series of character posters landed on the sequel’s Facebook page, starting with Katniss and Peeta.

Fans may be a bit disappointed by the limited scope of the trailer, which only shows us everything that happens up until Katniss and Peeta re-enter the arena (it's also up for debate whether the film is considering that reveal a spoiler, though given how much they're likely to promote the character of Finnick, I doubt it). But in this exceedingly well-cut and surprisingly emotional tease, I think there were 5 strong clues about what we can expect from the entirety of Catching Fire. Let's dig in